Living in Spain

Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain as it's officially known, is the second largest country in Europe. It's located in the South of Europe where it covers over 84% of the Iberian peninsula, which it splits with Portugal. After Chinese, Spanish is the most spoken of the languages in the world with over 406 million people speaking the language.

Apart from being the sixth largest population in Europe with a more than 46 million people, you'll have a lot of friends to make. Feast of San Fermín, Spanish for running of the bulls. This is a sport that is popular in Navarre's capital, Pamplona in which runners lead the bulls through the streets.

Spain is also popular for corridas - that's Spanish for bullfights.

It is also a country with culture and customs, when you're invited over to Spaniard's home, courtesy calls for gifts, chocolates, wine, cakes, liquor, flowers for the hostess etc. You're also required to shake a person's hand when you're introduced, and as you get acquainted men can receive pats on the shoulder and women kiss each other on cheeks starting with the left cheek.

Politics in Spain

The establishment of the constitution in 1978 is when the framework of the Spanish politics was decided and curated. Spain is a democracy, and like all democracies, the sovereign power rests with the people. When it comes to its government, however, Spain is a parliamentary monarchy, which means that the monarch is the head of the state and the prime minister is the head of the government. Although Spain has a multi-party political system since the 1990's two parties have dominated Spanish politics namely the People's Party and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.

Economy in Spain

Being the fourth largest economy by nominal GDP in the world, Spain was also the sixteenth largest importer in the world and the twelfth largest exporter. It is also listed 23rd in the UN development index. Although the financial crisis of 2007-2008 pulled the Spanish economy into recession, Spain managed to turn around the trade deficit by 2013 and has been doing well and growing ever since.

Buying or Renting Property in Spain

Finding a home in Spain is quite common and you would probably just have to do what you generally do back at home. A Few ways to find homes in Spain are through a real estate agent, newspapers, through word of mouth, or websites. Renting does have its perks as it temporary, you can see how you like the place, the environment, neighbors etc. So before you plan to buy a property it might be worth it if you rent first.

Schools in Spain

Spain has improved its standards in education along the years (especially in the past 20 years) by educational reforms and increases spending. Now as you're picking schools you should do so with caution as the schools mostly teach in their local dialects (thus, in Catalonia subjects may be taught in respectively Catalan and so on but this is not always the case) for primary and secondary schools. Hence you can pick the local dialect you want your child to learn in school along with Spanish by moving there.

Weather in Spain

Spain is the ideal summer vacation spot and has seduced tourists with its beaches, food and lively people. If you are in Spain the go to the beach you must. Apart from the beaches, being a vast country it has a diversity of weathers triggered by its mountain ranges and coastal areas.

This difference in the weather conditions is astounding, the highest recorded temperature was scorching 47°C ( Andalusia ) and the lowest temperature recorded was -32°C ( Lerida ).

All in all, it's difficult to summarize Spain because of its sheer immensity and culture but one thing you can count on is enjoying yourself there.

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